I have been very busy, so haven't posted just lurked, well I have 3 girls and my oldest just turned 14, and she wanted a blue quaker, I found a pet store that had 3 babies, so I was looking at getting her one, she is the only one that Bubba bites at!, so I was looking on craigs list and saw a post about 2 conures that needed a home, I have a soft spot for any bird so I emailed her to see what her rehoming fee was, and she told me she wanted 500.00 for everything which I didn't think was asking to much since the sun alone is about that much around here, but I really didn't have that much to spend so I emailed her and told her that I could do 300.00, so she said okay that all she wanted them to do was go to a good home, so we drove 90 min. away to look at them and I really didn't check them out to much just made sure I could handle them a little and from the look they looked healthy, the Nanday which my 3 yr old named rascal, is very heavy for his size, but very cuddly and wants to be held all the time! my question is about the sun which we are calling starburst, (she didn't name them just called them boys) she had papers from the breeder of raschal and he is 8 mos. old, no band though, the sun had no papers but is supposed to be the same age, however he is very light, looks underfed, and is missing a toe, that she did not tell me about, he is a little nippy but once you hold him he does fine, we have them in another level of the house now to quarentine because of bubba, and have a vet appt. on thursday, so my question is for anyone of you that have a sun what can I do to put a little weight on him!, One thing I have noticed is that Raschal is a hog he dosen't let starburst eat very much so I have been going in and seperating them while they eat just to make sure that he is eating, I am going to start converting them to pellets when they get settled in, also how long until I can bring them down I asked the vet and she said at least 30 days, I was thinking longer.
Thanks for all your help
Eileen

As the vet said, at least 30 days, some say 45 days. Remember to change your clothes and wash your hands after you've interacted with them and before you interact with the quaker and vice versa, and make double sure that you do so after you've cleaned cages etc. What a lot of people do is have a shirt that they slip on over their main clothes to wear when they're messing with one bird and then they take it off and leave it in that room and go wash their hands before handling the others.

I'm assuming that the Sun and the Nanday are housed in the same cage, If that's the case I personally would separate them if they are only 8 months old so that they don't bond with each other any tighter than they already are. That way the Nanday can no longer run the Sun off the food. In my opinion if you allow these guys to remain housed together they are most apt to lose more and more pet quality as they age because they have each other to occupy themselves and don't really need you for anything other than food and water. They will bond to each other. The longer they are housed together the tighter that bond will become. So if it were me I'd be buying another cage and putting one conure in one and one in the other and at least keeping them separate at night. You can have their cages right next to each other and allow them to continue to play together but make them sleep in separate cages.

This will allow them time to eat their own food and you might find that they trade cages and eat each other's food but at least it will give the sun a chance to get his fill.

Congrats and thank you for giving these birds a chance at a better life! I would certainly seperate them into different cages and then allow out of cage time together! Keeping them apart will allow you to monitor their food intake and out take lol Let us know what the Vet says!

That is exactly what I was thinking, I have a steril suit I bought long ago, and I use it and it just slips over my clothes, no one touches them except me and my dh, no interaction with the kids yet just for bubba's safety, I am going to seperate them tonight, I wanted to make sure they would be okay since they have been together for a while, when I do take one out the other calls for it so that may be okay after a few hrs. apart, what I did today was go in and get the sun out and feed him then the nanday ate in the cage and they both were okay with it I probably will wait to convert them until the are out in the open of the house so I can see how they act, I did get a good quality seed mix, they were eating a low quality one all it had was sunflower seeds and not much of anything else, and they wouldn't eat anything fresh at first but after a few tries they are taking anything I give them very easily so I am glad it is working out better the first day we took alot of very hard pinches, never broke the skin but the sun feels like he could break the bone LOL!, but after he saw that I wasn't going to back down I haven't been bitten again, I could tell they didn't get alot of attention or interaction because after we started to hold them they wouldn't get down!
I had to go get Bubba new goodies for his cage, he knows they are here and has tried to be sneaky and make his way to them it is quite funny when they start squaking he looks at me and then starts making the very same noise! I can't wait until they can be in the same room, I don't think Bubba will play with them because he is very one on one with me! I am just glad I got them and now I know they will be spoiled just like the rest so now I am officially the bird lady of the neighborhood!
Eileen

I seperated my GW pair after 2 yrs in the same cage together.It took some time and patience and we had a few days of extreme noise but if they are at least in the same room they do ok but have to be within sight.They have been in seperate cages for about 8 months now and are fine with it AS LONG as they can SEE each other.And they have to be fairly close to one another or else no one else gets a word in because they chatter back and forth across the room lol But theyir cages are about 5 ft from each other so they can still chat
If your conures do call for each other out of sight..try seperate cages just in the same room and within chattering distance.
Good luck and congrats on the new additions